I had never
heard of Peppa Pig when I received
the announcement in my inbox that Peppa was coming to town. Lucky me, I had
just scored the opportunity to get pre-sale tickets to the big upcoming
performance in early December.
The problem was I had no clue who or what Peppa was. The normally targeted email marketing messages that I receive in my email had missed the mark. I have since found out that Peppa Pig is a British animated TV show designed for pre-schoolers.
I'm a
frequent buyer of tickets from Ticketmaster, so I think they have a pretty good
profile on me as a consumer, and my buying habits. They are sophisticated
enough that I think they pay attention to that information, especially based on
other offers that I have received from them over the years.
Aside from
the laugh I had trying to determine if Peppa was some kiddie show or possibly a
strange punk rock group, it was a good reminder to make sure our marketing
message is the right one for the right audience.
Newspaper
sales reps don't always think about the audiences within the big readership
numbers for their products. What is forgotten is opportunities to reach
different segments of readership with the newspaper; male, female, young, old,
affluent, business owners and more.
Pending on
the size of your newspaper, you have different sections that offer a targeting
opportunity. If not full sections, in many cases special pages with different
content is available. Sales reps don't always do a good job of trying to match
up the various sections of a newspaper with their customers. At most newspapers
I've worked at, the reps try to jam all their ads into main news or around obituaries.
Certainly there are benefits to those two positions, but there are many others
that can be just as valuable to customers.
High school
football is starting up now, and reader interest is definitely there. Sales
reps do a great job selling the preview section, but are they also tapping into
the power of that audience to sell a combination ad for Thursday and Saturday,
the days of the game preview and recap?
Many
newspapers still run a syndicated weekly NASCAR page during the racing season,
which goes from February until November. This is another content page that
allows newspapers to offer targeted content to readers. In the case of NASCAR,
while the sport has dropped a little in popularity, fans tend to be fiercely
loyal to drivers and the brands they represent which opens up ad dollar
opportunities.
Local
business news, the weekly food page, religion page and special pages for
seniors are regular content in many newspapers. Yet ad departments are not
always seizing the opportunity to take this targeted content and turning it
into dollars.
It doesn't
even have to be special pages to become a premium position and targeted
content. I've been working recently with a customer who has to have their
content either next to the weather or lottery numbers. In that customer's mind,
those are high traffic areas for the customer they are trying to reach. We are accommodating
their request, and gaining revenue as a result. Beyond the weather and lottery
numbers, both good spots, there are others that can be utilized. Every market
has special content, including things like the police blotter, the local school
lunch menu, court information especially bankruptcies and divorces.
Take
inventory of your content that runs daily, weekly or monthly. Determine what
might be of interest to a specific segment of your readers or advertisers and
see what you can generate as a result. Every newspaper has limited resources,
so you need to maximize what you have, and that is especially true with
content. If your readers see value in
the content, then it is very likely that your advertisers will as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment